Project Description: For my Family Involvement Project I sent students home with the task of

engaging with a parent/guardian or other adult in a conversation about an event or book that
has significantly impacted their (the adults) life. Students were to take notes on this
conversation and then obtain a signature from whomever they spoke with. This project
served as a brief introduction to our unit on voices of change/conflict and how these voices
can impact readers today. A letter to parents is to accompany the small task sheet sent
home with students. The letters purpose is to open up a line of communication with
parents/guardians about the upcoming unit. It is also meant to encourage their involvement
with their childs education.
I decided to conduct this task with my 4th and 6th period classes. Detailed information about
these classes is listed below.
School Demographics pulled from:
http://www.publicschoolsk12.com
This is data from 2009-2010
Gender, Ethnicity, Lunch, English Proficiency Score, and Special Needs Information was
obtained through PowerTeacher by the cooperating teacher ** indicates that the answers
were self-identified by students School Demographics:
Teacher to Student Ratio: 13.8 to 1
Total Enrollment: Approximately 734 students with 53 full-time teachers. 240 in 6 th grade,
241 in 7th, and 253 in 8th.
Ethnicity: 63% White/Caucasian, 29% Black, 7% Hispanic, 2% Asian, and 0% other
Lunch: 252 (34%) of student are eligible for free lunch and 76 (10%) are eligible for reduced
lunch.
*During the time in which this data was pulled, the school was Title I eligible. However, I
have been informed that this academic year (2014-2015) the school is NOT considered to
be
Title I.

4th Period (General; 28 students):

Gender: 9 Female & 19 Male
Ethnicity: 13 White, 1 Mixed, 4 Hispanic, 1 Indian, & 9 Black
Lunch: 7 Paid, 17 Free, & 4 Reduced

Eng. Prof. Score: 24 students with a score of 9, 1 with a score of 4, 2 with a score of
2,
& 1 with a score indicated by C
Special Needs: 6 students identified for Spec. Ed. Services
Interests**: planting, drawing, dancing, soccer, skateboarding, movies, video games,
biographies, beach, sports, baseball, football
Preferred Learning Styles**: group work, hands-on, notes/being able to write things down,
visual learning, individual work, peer editing/having peers review work 6 th Period (General;
27 students):
Gender: 13 Female & 14 Male
Ethnicity: 15 White, 1 Mixed, 5 Hispanic, & 6 Black
Lunch: 7 Paid, 15 Free, & 5 Reduced
Eng. Prof. Score: 23 students with a score of 9, 1 with a score of 3, & 3 with a score of 2
Special Needs: 9 students identified for Spec. Ed. Services
Interests**: ice hockey, youtube, movies, guitar, orchestra, violin, writing, learning new
things, sports, making videos, gymnastics, singing, hip-hop, dancing, anime, drawing,
music, food, cookies, classic cars, skateboarding, fairy tales, money, reading, video games,
XBOX360, sleeping, Andy Biersack
Preferred Learning Styles**: visual learning, independent work, group work, hands-on,
PPTs, modeling/showing/demonstrating a task or activity
Collaboration with Stakeholders: Involvement included myself, students, parents/guardians,
and even other faculty members. Collaboration specific to each stakeholder is listed below.
Me: I was responsible for connecting the project to the curriculum and served as a
planner of the project as well as the distributor of the letter and task sheets. Students were
to return the signed task sheets back to me upon completion.
Students: Students were responsible for taking letters and task sheets home. It was
also their responsibility to start up a conversation with an adult, preferable a
parent/guardian, about an event or book that impacted their (the adults) life. They also had
to take notes and obtain a
signature in order for the assignment to be considered complete.
Parents/Guardians: Parents/Guardians had to be receptive to the idea of sharing
something that could be considered personal. They had to be willing to set aside some time
to speak with their child about an event or book that strongly impacted their life and discuss
with them how something from the past can affect the decisions that are made today.
Other Faculty: Some students reported that there was no one at home at the end of
the school day with which they could interact for the purpose of the assignment. In order for
these students to receive the benefit of interaction, and take away the message intended

from the implementation of the project, I advised them to speak with an adult within the
school. Other faculty members contributed to the completion of these students
assignments.
At the conclusion of the project, an additional letter is to be sent home thanking stakeholders
for their contribution to the success of the assignment. Stakeholders are to be informed how
their information was shared and discussed in the classroom for the benefit of learning from
one another. It is a goal that by the end of the semester, students will be able to conduct a
similar task on each other or on themselves in order to see how events/voices of the past
have affected them.
Link to the Curriculum: This task links directly to the theme and focus questions of Unit 5.
The theme of Unit 5 is Voices of Change and Conflict. Focus questions and big ideas for the
unit include the following:
-How do stories/events from the past affect modern readers?
-Many themes in literary and informational texts offer timeless lessons for modern
readers.
-Authors beliefs and experiences influence depictions of events, allowing readers to
gain insights from the comparison.
Young Adolescent Theory: My students are 21st Century Learners, meaning that the skills
they must possess in order to become successful revolve around creativity, critical-thinking,
collaboration, and communication. My Family Involvement Project addresses the need for
collaboration and communication in a very effective way. It has students communicating and
collaborating with an adult figure to find out information related the upcoming unit in school.
The unit we are about to dive into is made relevant to their life in this way because a
connection between home/family and school work has been made.
Students at this age also have short attention spans. This activity was designed to take only
10-15 minutes of time, but could have taken less or more time depending on the adults
conversation with the student. But it was meant to be quick and meaningful in order to spark
interest in the mind of the student without going on for so long that they forget what its
original purpose was.
Communication: Communication took place through a letter home, student word of mouth,
and email. There was an original letter and the follow-up letter.
Supporting Documentation: **student work is to be scanned in** Letters home and email are
to be attached.
Family Understanding: It has been made apparent to me, not only through this assignment,
that in order for a student to experience success and work toward their full potential, a
family-school connection must be made. The surrounding community of parents and family

members who are connected to the school must have active involvement within their childs
education in order for the child to pursue education both in and outside of the classroom.
Motivation is much higher for the students who have a family involved with the school and
their education; this is easily seen in my students.
Sometimes it is not always easy for parents/family to get involved with the school, especially
in the area where I am student teaching. Many families are under constraints that do not
allow an adult to be at home whenever the student is at home. And even if they are home,
they might not always be readily available to engage in their childs school work. It is
important for there to be open lines of communication between the school and home in
order for this involvement to increase, even if it is just by a small amount. A relationship
must be put in place so that parents/families know that as a teacher, I care about their
childs education and am willing to help provide support for what can get accomplished at
home.
Lesson Planning: Not all of my students returned their assignment. Many presented the
excuse that there simply was no one with whom they believed they could interact with for
the assignment. This indicates to me that there needs to be a stronger school-home
connection. I would like to more frequently reach out to home so that both students, and
their families, are cooperative when an assignment is sent home. This is not only so that the
assignment is completed, but also so that parents/families see that I am invested in their
childs education and I care about the support that is being received at home. I want them to
know that I am willing and open to working with them to find effective ways of
communicating about their child as a student in my class and that I am willing to provide any
needed or wanted resources for their childs benefit and success.
I hope to try more assignments like this in the future when I have my own classroom, but I
plan to make it a more complex assignment where parents/families actually come into the
school or meet outside of school. I want the assignment to really connect families with what
is happening within the classroom. Because I will be teaching Math in the upcoming year, I
believe that it would be very interesting to have family members, or even community
members, come to speak about how they use math in their career. This would be a great of
getting families involved and students invested in their learning because it makes the
content relevant and meaningful to their lives and their interests.
How Project will be Evaluated: Students will be evaluated on their completion and sharing of
the assignment. Students should have a parent/guardian/other adult signature
accompanying a small set of notes about an event or novel that has impacted their (the
adults) life (75% of assignment). Participation in group discussion about this assignment is
included as 25% of the assignment.